The development of transistors, the integrated circuit, liquid-crystal displays, and even DVD players can be traced back to fundamental research pioneered in the field of condensed-matter and materials physics (CMPP). The United States has been a leader in the field, but that status is now in jeopardy. Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics, part of the Physics 2010 decadal survey project, assesses the present state of the field in the United States, examines possible directions for the 21st century, offers a set of scientific challenges for American researchers to tackle, and makes recommendations for effective spending of federal funds. This book maintains that the field of CMPP is certain to be principle to both scientific and economic advances over the next decade and the lack of an achievable plan would leave the United States behind. This book's discussion of the intellectual and technological challenges of the coming decade centers around six grand challenges concerning energy demand, the physics of life, information technology, nanotechnology, complex phenomena, and behavior far from equilibrium. Policy makers, university administrators, industry research and development executives dependent upon developments in CMPP, and scientists working in the field will find this book of interest

Committee Members and NRC Staff

Mildred Dresselhaus, Co-chair, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyWilliam Spencer, Co-chair, SEMATECHGabriel Aeppli, University College LondonSamuel Bader, Argonne National LaboratoryWilliam Bialek, Princeton UniversityDavid Bishop, Bell Labs/Lucent TechnologiesAnthony Cheetham, University of California at Santa BarbaraJames P. Eisenstein, California Institute of TechnologyHidetoshi Fukuyama, Tokyo University of ScienceLaura Garwin, Harvard University (resigned from committee in October 2006)Peter Green, University of MichiganFrances Hellman, University of California at Berkeley (resigned from committee in September 2006)Randall Hulet, Rice UniversityHeinrich Jaeger, University of ChicagoSteven Kivelson, Stanford UniversityAndrea Liu, University of PennsylvaniaPaul McEuen, Cornell UniversityKarin Rabe, State University of New Jersey, RutgersThomas Theis, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center